How do in-kind offers work?

You can add in-kind offers to your project prior to beginning crowdfunding and count them towards your target. Once you are crowdfunding any in-kind offers you receive cannot be put towards your target.

In-kind contributions for items that would otherwise be a cost to your project can be made prior to the start of a crowdfunding campaign. That way our verification partners Locality can review these offers to make sure that they will be honored upon hitting your target. Once verified, each offer will appear as a pledge on your list of backers, and the value of each pledge will be added to the amount that you have already raised.

For example, the landlord has offered free rent on a building worth £10,000 and this would otherwise be a cost to your project which has a total cost of £30,000. You have attached evidence of an email from the landlord confirming this offer. Your project value remains £30,000, but when you start your crowdfunding campaign, you start on £10,000, and you have one backer - the landlord. You now need to raise the remaining £20,000.

As you can imagine, we need to verify the certainty of the offer from the landlord. If we don't, and then after crowdfunding £20,000 it turns out that his rent offer was not genuine, then suddenly you have a £10,000 hole in your budget. This process helps to avoid that kind of outcome.

We can only check these offers as part of the verification process, which happens prior to starting the crowdfunding campaign (FAQ: what is verification?). Any offers for a cost item that are made after your project has been verified and you have started crowdfunding cannot be added towards your campaign.

If the item offered is from your wish list, and not from your main cost items, then you are welcome to accept this at any time.